Migrating Notification Services Instances to a Higher Edition of SQL Server 2005
If you are running Notification Services on Microsoft SQL Server 2005, you can migrate your Notification Services instances to a higher edition of SQL Server 2005. The following list shows the editions of SQL Server 2005 supported by Notification Services in order from lowest to highest edition:
- SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
You can migrate SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition instances to Evaluation Edition or Developer Edition even though they are lower on the list. Evaluation Edition and Developer Edition have the same Notification Services functionality as Enterprise Edition; allowing migration from Standard Edition to these editions allows you to evaluate the features of Enterprise Edition.
SQL Server 2005 Notification Services binaries are upgraded to a higher edition of SQL Server 2005 by running SQL Server 2005 Setup. However, instances of Notification Services are not automatically migrated when you run Setup. You must migrate the instances to the higher edition after running Setup using the following process:
- Install the higher edition of SQL Server 2005 Notification Services.
- Upgrade Notification Services instance metadata.
Migration Matrix
The following table shows possible migration paths. "Yes" indicates that you can migrate from the version in the left column to the version at the top of the column. "No" indicates that the migration fails.
| Evaluation Edition | Developer Edition | Standard Edition | Enterprise Edition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Evaluation Edition |
--4 |
Yes2 |
Yes3 |
Yes |
Developer Edition |
No |
--4 |
Yes3 |
Yes |
Standard Edition |
Yes1 |
Yes2 |
--4 |
Yes |
Enterprise Edition |
No |
No |
No |
--4 |
1 SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition has a time limit. When the time limit expires, the instance of Notification Services will not start.
2 Note the license restrictions with SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition.
3 Note that not all features are supported in SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. The instance update, performed at the end of the migration process, will flag any features in the application that are not supported by Standard Edition.
4 Migration succeeds, but no changes are made because the source and target version and edition are the same.
Preparing to Migrate
Before migrating instances of Notification Services from a lower to a higher edition of SQL Server 2005, perform the following tasks:
- Determine the best time to perform the migration.
Migrate instances during periods of low activity to minimize the impact on event collection, notification generation and distribution, and subscription management. You should also try to avoid migrating during a scheduled vacuuming interval, which often occurs during periods of low activity. The vacuuming schedule is defined in application definition files (ADFs) in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format. - Prepare a backup device for the instance and application databases.
During migration, you are instructed to back up your instance and application databases. Having backup devices defined reduces the time required to migrate instances.
How to Migrate
You can migrate instances of Notification Services to another edition of SQL Server 2005 using SQL Server Management Studio or command prompt utilities:
- How to: Migrate Notification Services Instances to a Higher Edition (SQL Server Management Studio)
- How to: Migrate Notification Services Instances to a Higher Edition (Command Prompt)
See Also
Concepts
How to: View Notification Services Version Information
Migrating Notification Services Instances
Installing SQL Server Notification Services